Doctors deserved to be bashed particularly in the area of nutrition. Their bad advice won't go away until they retire or die because their income is based on wrong information. Given the choice of getting paid or being right they choose to get paid and stay wrong. Representing this mentality to its worse degree is the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association. Because of their lousy advice I am beginning to think they are more responsible for dietary deaths than the food industry.

Doctors do not make money on you being chronically sick. Not in an HMO setting at least. My doctors make the same salary if I live or die. They actually care that I live because they actually care.

Does the medical profession need to get rid of some outdated information? Definitely. But so does society at large.

Saying the system needs to improve and be updated is not the same thing as saying that all doctors are evil lying bastards who want you to be sick so they can make money off of you. That's where the tin foil hats come out.

That's also where people can be convinced to buy snake oil instead. Once convinced there really are miracle cures for say cancer that are being suppressed by those evil doctors, then someone can easily be sold on coffee enemas, magic teas, Miracle Mineral Supplement (which is pool disinfectant BTW).

Then people go spend their money on "miracle" cures while more importantly spending their time not getting the real cure which is completely available to them. Real doctors can and do cure cancer every day. I and thousands like me are living proof of this. Who are the money grubbers again?

People need to participate with the medical establishment to see that it changes, not just shun it entirely. Vote with your feet. If your doctor is a CW idiot who needs to retire, find a younger more open minded one. Go doctor shopping.

My family's doctors have been nothing but supportive of the PB eating and exercise. Our GP said, "This is exactly what I try to get all my patients with diabetes to do." And she also said, "when it comes to medication, I think less is more, but a lot of people just want a pill."

Doctors do not make money on you being chronically sick. Not in an HMO setting at least. My doctors make the same salary if I live or die.

Mmm yes, but they are corporate puppets, serving the massive investment capital that has been put up to treat illness with drugs. That capital needs to make a financial return. Those drugs need to be sold. And thus the doctors need to shut up and play along.

I'm fine with doctor bashing, but better to go deeper into venture capital, the corporation and the machines controlling the doctors.

Mmm yes, but they are corporate puppets, serving the massive investment capital that has been put up to treat illness with drugs. That capital needs to make a financial return. Those drugs need to be sold. And thus the doctors need to shut up and play along.

I'm fine with doctor bashing, but better to go deeper into venture capital, the corporation and the machines controlling the doctors.

You evidently didn't read the part about my doctors taking me and my father off of medications. And they work for a big HMO. Stay with your stereotypes and polish that tin foil or else make the system change by voting with your feet.

It's easier to whine and polish the tin foil isn't it? If you took responsibility for finding good health care by doctor shopping then, not only would you have nothing to bitch about, but you could actually force the change you want to see.

There are a lot of patients who like the "just give me a pill" form of healthcare. They are responsible for the problem too.

I've seen A LOT of doctors in the recent past, and I belong to an HMO, so it's not like I'm cherrypicking the very best in my area. Just in the past 3 years, here are the reasons I've seen doctors:

Replace my Mirena
Core biopsy for a suspicious breast lump
Check out and document the damage from a couple of concussions
Hip pain (torn labrum) that was suspicious for cancer
Shoulder pain (frozen shoulder/torn rotator cuff)
Whooping cough (pertussis)
Flu (after The Boyfriend's boss bullied him into a flu shot)
Torn colon (no, not from that) and the intense pain that followed

As you can see, I'm really quite clumsy. That's two GPs, one ER doc, one Urgent Care doc, one gynecologist, one neurologist, one shoulder specialist and one hip specialist (in addition to roving gangs of imaging techs and nurses).

Every one of these times, I've had a good discussion about what the best treatment would be, and the doctors actually listened. They told me when I seriously needed treatment (though it was still up to me), and they told me a lot of times that the usual treatment wasn't really necessary and suggested alternate therapies. Once they knew I was in the "what can I do besides surgery or meds" camp, they were fine with finding alternate ways for most things and actually seemed to be happy that I didn't just ask for a pill.

Now part of that may be that I go into the doctor's office already having done some research myself, and part of it may be that I make it clear that I don't want to be on pain killers the rest of my life. But I think a lot of it has to do with asking a lot of questions and not being willing to deal with dismissive doctors or those that aren't willing to do any hard thinking.